A Trip of a Life Time!

If you read my last post here you'll know that last Friday I went to South Africa on safari! Going on safari is one of those things that I think everyone wants to do at some stage - who doesn't want to ride around in a Jeep looking at the gorgeous animals in their environment. I have to say that it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done, the whole trip was so busy start to finish but I wouldn't change it for the world.

We arrived on Saturday lunch time after a horrid 2 1/2 hour transfer but we headed straight out on our first drive after a quick bite to eat. Seeing the animals just roaming around was really breathtaking, we saw everything from Giraffe, Zebra and even Rhino! Our ranger was fab, he was really knowledgeable and put up with all of our questions, it also helped that he was very easy on the eye ;) 

Over the 4 days we went out on 6 drives in total, 3 morning drives and 3 afternoon/evening drives. The wake up call was 5.30am with the drive starting at 6am, it was really tough getting up especially as it was so very cold first thing but seeing the animals and scenery really made it worth it. 

We stayed at the Ivory Tree Game Lodge located in Pilanesburg National Park which is nestled right on the park parameter. The lodge was very luxurious and the staff couldn't have been more accommodating. After every evening drive we'd come back to the room and they would have turned the heating up, turned down the beds and left a very yummy chocolate on the pillow. 

As you can tell from the picture above we kept at quite a distance to the two lions that we spotted as they were in the mating stage, this meant that every 20 minutes for 3 days they would mate - poor lioness! At times I was so busy looking through my binoculars at the animals that I didn't have a chance to get snap happy as much as I would have liked but I am glad with the pictures that I did get. 

I even managed to cross off a couple of my 101 Things, I had a full body massage which I have to say was amazing! It was 90 minutes long and included a scalp massage and a facial as well as the normal body massage! It was definitely needed after all those early mornings and late nights. As we were in the middle of nowhere there was no reception which meant no access to social media, whilst there was WiFi available I did think that it would be a good opportunity to shut off from the world completely. It was nice not have my phone glued to my hand but I do feel I've missed out on so much whilst I've been away! 

Landing back at Heathrow this morning at 5.10am was a definite blow to the system, and thinking about going back to work tomorrow is giving me the holiday blues already! We all had a fab trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is umm'ing and arr'ing! 

What's been your most favourite holiday? Would you like to go on safari? Or have you been? 

K x